THUMPER STICKER

Many moons ago, when my good friend Steve Burbidge was accepted to med school at the University of Minnesota, I had this brainstorm of an idea for a bumper sticker.  The 'I [heart] MY DOG -- MY CAT -- MY KID etc.' bumper sticker craze had just hatched and was catching on fast, so my idea was a natural.  I did worry that, in order to get the visual joke, people would have to drive close enough up... and crash into the car ahead. 

OUTCAST SEASON ONE PREMIERE!

OUTCAST season one has begun on Cinemax, with new episodes airing on Friday nights (and rerunning all week long.)  This a writers room white board rendition of the official poster...

TIME TRAVEL VIA AN OLD COMIC STRIP

When I attended USC I was an illustrator/cartoonist for the campus paper The Daily Trojan... you can tell how long ago that was by noting that the subject of the above cartoon, the Sony Walkman, was the cool, new tech gadget at colleges.  My favorite little thing is how the prof drops his piece of chalk... (also old school --  literally.)

REAPER - RE-POSSESSED!

 

Not storyboards technically, but an image sequence to explain how I envisioned the spirit of a chain-saw wielding serial killer exits the body of the nebbishy character Greg.  From the aptly titled REAPER episode Greg, Schmeg, written by me and Chris Black.

WELCOME TO MINNESOTA!

 

I did these post college and before I started in advertising.  I like the "fall in love with a loon" in particular because the lines have a nice uneven quality -- I may have used brush and ink instead of my go-to Sharpie Marker... plus how the flannel-shirted guy is staring PAST the loon, possibly stoned and unaware the bird's even there...

MAX PERLICH 2006

In 2006, during the pilot shoot of 13 GRAVES I drew this picture of cast member Max Perlich scooting around on his skateboard.     http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001611/

WEIRD SCIENCE COFFEE ANYONE?

 

As the lead characters in WEIRD SCIENCE were not of drinking age, we had them hang out at a coffee shop whilst not in school.  It already had been named JAVA MAN! so all I had to come up with was the logo

FORGET BATMAN v SUPERMAN... LET'S WATCH THESE TWO DUKE IT OUT

 

MICKEY v HARRY-- THE DAWN of ADMISSION NUMBERS...

 

With the big opening of HARRY POTTER WORLD at Universal Studios Los Angeles, Disneyland is up against some super competition.  

CALLING ALL COP-YRIGHTS!

Back at the University of Minnesota, there was a West Bank bar called DICK TRACY'S SALOON and we at the MN Daily Creative Department did up ads for them, using my drawings of the Chester Gould comic strip characters.  Copyright infringement?  Who cared?  Eventually the syndicate that owned the comic strip cared -- enough so that the bar's name was changed to TRACY'S SALOON.  Which meant the place needed a new mascot -- copyright free -- and I came up with this guy... 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ROBO WOLF!

 

Old fav, colored with Corel...



STAR WARS FRIDAY SUBMISSION

POW! PUT MOTION IN YOUR CARTOONS!

 

What puts motion into the picture of a guy getting punched in the face?  The ABSENCE OF STRAIGHT LINES -- sure, a bullet or an arrow shoot straight, but here it's the ARC of the punch and the BOWING of the recipient that bring the picture to life!

 

The book ANIMATION by Preston Blair shows great examples of the above.  And you can find a PDF copy online!  That book over every other really helped me learn to draw...

JABBA THE HUT BUYS IT -- THE ALTERNATIVE VERSION

One of the RETURN OF THE JEDI cartoons I did, part of the extensive STAR WARS strips Craig McNamara and I drew at the Minnesota Daily when we supposed to be working.  I know ROBOT CHICKEN did a lot of the same kinda gags, as did FAMILY GUY, but if it's any consolation, Craig and I were decades ahead of them...

WEREWOLF? THERE WOLF... GETTING HIS ASS KICKED

 

A personal favorite trio of panels from Twelve O'clock Somewhere -- inspired in part by Gene Colan's artwork in the old Marvel Dracula comics.  Accompanying (and apropos) poetry by Robert Service.



MAD MAX FURY ROAD

 

Saw MAD MAX FURY ROAD a third time in the theater.  Man, what a great film.  See it on the big screen if you still have a chance!  (The above drawing is not in any way, shape, or form connected to MMFR...)

FRANKENSEIN MEETS THE BABY SEAL

 

 

No, it's not some unknown Universal monster movie discovered stashed away in some attic steamer trunk... I was doodling at OUTCAST, and the above pictures were oddly juxtaposed.  Colored via Corel PAINTER.

DINO DILEMMA

Sure, Dinosaurs had lizard brains, but big huge ones... and who's to say they weren't puzzled by the prehistoric world around them?   A doodle done whilst at the OUTCAST offices...

HANNIBAL's influence on this fall's new MUPPETS SHOW

HANNIBAL IS OVER. LONG LIVE HANNIBAL

When NBC announced it wasn't picking HANNIBAL up for a fourth season, I drew this cartoon strip as a final send-off... but waited until the series had officially ended before publishing it here.  Whether it was to your taste or not, nowhere on network television could you find a headier, more stylish or daring show...

NEW GIG -- OUTCAST

HANNIBAL is halfway through its third season, but alas there won't be a fourth.  I'm happy to report that I'm now on the new Robert Kirkman series, OUTCAST.  The super-cool poster (which I DID NOT illustrate) is above... and you can watch the trailer at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJzVP_4HYT8

Look for the series in 2016 on Cinemax...

'EMPIRE STRIKES BACK' AT-AT WALKER BEATS THE SUMMER HEAT

 

 

The model is planted in real, honest to goodness Minnesota snow.  Using photos from ESB as reference, I built this ATT out of cardboard, balsa wood and styrene McDonalds burger containers (the feet and head.)

Remember McDonalds styrene burger containers?  Your great grandchildren will -- as those burger pods will still be bio-degrating a thousand years after they're gone...

SH-SHAAARK! JAWS forty years after its big splash...

 

Spielberg's second feature came out forty years ago this summer.  JAWS introduced the concept of Boffo Summer Box Office -- and you can see it again on the big screen!  June 21st and 24th, TCM is screening the film in movie theaters around the country.  Check if your city is one of the lucky ones! 

 

The above is a decades-old photo of a billboard a friend and I reworked to honor the film...

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS #46

HANNIBAL SEASON THREE PREMIERES JUNE 4th

 

The entire season three staff wishes you a happy season three viewing, June 4th on NBC -- check your local listings...

IN HONOR OF GAME OF THRONES, SEASON V, EPISODE TWO...

...Which airs tonight, I offer this old sketch I came across.

GARY v DEMON

 

A storyboard panel I did for a WEIRD SCIENCE episode back in the day

'EMPIRE' IS HOT, BUT DAVID CASSIDY WAS HOTTER...

ASSORTED DOODLES

From top to bottom: 1) Back in my Minnesota script group, often people reading their script pages aloud would describe a contemplative character's action as "kneading their forehead..." I drew a pic of what came to my mind, 2) an easily impressed earthworm and 3) An amalgamated marriage -- I had drawn the telephone-antlered moose and on the same page I'd drawn the cranky old man and, seeing their juxtaposition, I completed the doodle so that the little animal was peering over the fellow's head -- his pet, or his muse... or a parasite.

WHERE THUNDER COMES FROM...

Death's Head Script Cover

Years ago Scott Nimerfro and I came up with an idea for a feature -- what happened to Ebenezener Scrooge AFTER his visit from 3 ghosts?  Anyway, the title, for about 5 seconds, was taken from the last chapter title in A CHRISTMAS CAROL -- 'The End of It',  Naturally, I felt compelled to draw art for the script cover (a no-no in scriptwriting).  Clearer heads prevailed and we later changed the name -- but the artwork survives...